


Sleep

by AngelWars, clonecest_bin_account



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Exhaustion, Fainting, Fluff, Jesse is the best!, Kix is stubborn, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Umbara Arc (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29766690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelWars/pseuds/AngelWars, https://archiveofourown.org/users/clonecest_bin_account/pseuds/clonecest_bin_account
Summary: After the Umbara campaign, Jesse goes looking for Kix. He finds him in the medbay working tirelessly to help their comrades in any way he can. Jesse is very concerned about the dark bags under Kix's eyes though. What will he do when Kix's exhaustion catches up with him? Is he able to get Kix to rest?
Relationships: CT-5597 | Jesse/CT-6116 | Kix
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!

It's been a couple of hours since the Umbara campaign ended. It was the most tiring campaign Jesse or any clone has ever had. First of all, the thick fog made the atmosphere feel so intimidating and scary. It put everyone on edge.

Secondly, the Umbarans and their tech made their lives a living hell. It was so unfair; not like war is fair in the first place but they blew up many of Jesse's brothers sky high with their electric cannons and spider-like machines. Thirdly, General Skywalker left the 501st by themselves with General Krell, a mongrel general.

An asshole, Hardcase would say... if he were still here that is. 

Jesse closes his eyes behind his black visor, feeling the LAAT vibrate, shaking back and forth as they enter the main hangar bay of _the Resolute._

 _Yeah...we lost Hardcase, Dogma was arrested for killing General Krell—a betrayer to the Republic and a clone killer—and we lost Waxer. We lost a lot of brothers, not just the three of them,_ Jesse thinks, lowering his gun to his side. 

The side doors flip up to open, letting Jesse and his many brothers hop out. Dozens of plastoid boots make contact with the metal floor. Tapping in unison. Jesse looks around the hangar bay, searching for one person in particular. _Where is he?_ he wonders, walking forward. 

Jesse walks up to Axe and taps his shoulder. "Hey, have you seen Kix?" He asks him.

Axe shrugs. "Nah. Try the medbay." Jesse nods, rolling his eyes internally. _Of course! Why didn't I try that first? Dumbass._

"Heh. Alright, thanks," he says to Axe, nodding curtly to him. 

Axe smiles and nods at the lieutenant. "No problem."

Jesse turns around and heads for the medbay, taking off his helmet as he does. He looks down at the dirtied-up paint and sighs heavily, feeling the weight of his sins and self-hatred press down onto his chest. Jesse shakes off the feeling, for now, ignoring it, and enters the hallway. Every brother he passes he avoids eye contact with. Each time he accidentally looks someone in the eyes, he can see the haunted haze over their eyes.

It's terrible. Nightmarish. It reminds Jesse of what they've gone through. The shit show Umbara was. They may have won but they lost their spirits and souls in the process. Loved ones too. 

The tired lieutenant approaches the medbay and walks through the opening doors. His eyes flick across the dim-lit room. Injured brothers everywhere. In every nook and cranny, someone is groaning and moaning in pain. Someone is dying somewhere. It makes his stomach churn. _Kix. Kix. I need to find Kix._ He tells himself, hurrying inside, searching for the medic with a red cross on his shoulder pad. Jesse honestly can’t remember the last time that he saw him. A large part of him is scared that he somehow disappeared or... _No no. Don’t think like that Jesse. Come on. He's here. He has to be._

Pushing his anxiety aside, Jesse finally finds Kix after ten minutes of looking. Kix is huddled up in the corner, quickly moving his finger across what looks to be a brightly lit screen. Jesse sighs under his breath and calmly walks over. 

"Kix?" he calls, coming up to stand beside his stool. Kix doesn’t even notice him, not at first at least. He just keeps tapping and taking notes of the injured, separating the ones who need only light medical attention to the gravely wounded.“Kix?”

_Damn, I’ll need to ask for more bacta too. We’re running out of it…_

“Kix!”

Only then, Kix shakes himself from the trance he was trapped in, startled by Jesse’s loud voice. “What?!” he exclaims, quickly turning towards the other, only to hiss in pain as his whole body begins to hurt in protest. For a moment, all he can see is black, but luckily it doesn’t last long enough to seriously worry him; he can’t afford to get sick now, not when so many brothers need him.

“What is it?” he asks again, voice calmer this time. He hopes Jesse doesn’t notice that he needs to lean against the wall. 

Unfortunately for him, Jesse does. He should’ve known. “Kix, are you alright?” he asks in fact, already stepping into Kix’s space.

“Yeah, I’m fine. A bit tireds’ all,” he lies. He tries to push past Jesse—his vode needs him—but he doesn’t manage because Jesse immediately grabs him by the shoulder.

“That’s bullshit and you know it, Kix. You’re not just tired, you’re exhausted.”

A sigh escapes Kix’s mouth at those words. He’s not wrong, far from it, but…“What am I supposed to do?” Kix asks. “I can’t let my brothers die.” He shakes Jesse’s hand off his shoulder and begins to walk, although with uncertain steps, to where they’re keeping the patients. Somebody must surely need him, and he can’t let them hang for too long; it’s his responsibility as a medic to make sure that the highest number of people survive, and that’s not something he takes lightly.

Jesse watches him go, frowning deeply. He can't let Kix go on with this but he also can't get in the way if Kix has to do something important. All that Jesse can do is wait this out and see if Kix eventually leaves the medbay and goes to rest, highly unlikely, or something forces him to sit his ass down and rest. 

So, Jesse looks from left to right, gazing over the many moaning and groaning bodies on the medical beds. _There's so many of them,_ he thinks, gulping. He turns around and heads right back over to the desk and countertop so that he's out of the way. He leans his back against the edge and watches the medics hurry left and right, carrying medical equipment, yelling orders and words, comforting brothers that are resting now or are in pain. Everyone is on deck here. Everyone is needed. Fifteen or so minutes pass and Jesse has been watching Kix move back and forth across the room. He hasn't stopped, as Jesse predicted, but he’s slowing down some bit by bit. Jesse hides his worry over the sight and looks down at the floor, focusing on the black and white colors mixing. 

Meanwhile, Kix walks over to one of the medical beds in the middle of the room and looks at his datapad. "Alright, Chex, right?" He asks the trooper laid upon the bed. 

Chex blinks up at Kix and waves his hand. "Oh, hey Kix."

Kix smiles. "Hey. How are you feeling right now? Does your leg hurt?" he asks him, typing a couple of things onto the screen.

Chex nods. "Hell yeah. It hurts like a mother fucker."

"Oh ho!” Kix chuckles. "I bet."

Chex sags into the pillow and sighs. "Tell me doc, how long will I be bedridden?"

Kix stops typing and taps his chin instead, deep in thought. He looks at Chex's broken leg and calculates. "Well, judging by the type of break you have, 6 to 8 weeks at best." Chex makes a face. Kix holds up a hand and waves it. "Don't worry. With the technology we have, it'll take at least 2 weeks at best for it to fully heal. You'll be fine. And you are lucky that you are one of the many few that have broken bones. Mostly everyone else has blaster burns or something like that."

Chex nods. "Yep."

"Yeah, so I'm going to take some notes for that and check your leg to make sure it's tightly wrapped up," Kix says, looking away to grab a tool off of the nearest metal tray. 

Chex gives him a lazy thumbs up and closes his eyes. Kix moves to pick up the tool but freezes. His vision swerves nauseatingly. Kix blinks slowly and stands there for a second, trying to clear up the small black dots in the corner of his vision. _Kriff. Stop it. I'm fine,_ Kix reminds himself, breathing deeply through his nose to quell nausea churning in his stomach. 

The dizzying effect gradually fades away quick enough for Kix to play off his silence as focusing. He puts on his serious face again and turns to face Chex. Kix moves to stand near the bottom of the bed and gently places his hand on the cast around Chex's leg to keep the limb still. 

Chex opens his eyes and peeks out of them, watching Kix stare down at his leg. Chex blinks in confusion. "Uhhh, doc? Is everything okay?" 

Kix gulps shallowly and closes his eyes. Everything's spinning like a fast top. He can't stop it. He breathes in deeply and leans to one side. Darkness consumes him. 

Chex yelps in alarm when Kix crumples to the floor. The patient sits up the best he can and curses. "Kix? Kix! Hey! Something's wrong with Kix!" He yells, trying to get someone. 

Jesse jerks where he's sitting when he hears someone yell about something being wrong with his _cyare._ He pushes himself forward and speed walks down the aisle between the rows of medical beds. Some medics are slowly walking over to see what's wrong, unable to leave their patients. Jesse gently pushes them aside and comes around the corner. His dark eyebrows furrow and his lips pull up into a stiff, straight line when he catches sight of Kix sprawled out on the cold metal floor.

He immediately kneels beside him and checks his pulse. Sure he’s not a medic, but even he knows the basics. Judging by what he can discern by looking at him, he’s just exhausted, though Jesse can’t be sure of that. What if he’s sick or something and he hasn’t noticed?

Thankfully for him, help arrives, in the form of Coric: as soon as he’s gotten wind of what’s happening, he rushes to them, and in a moment he’s over Kix, examining him. 

When Coric turns to Jesse, he looks relieved. “He just passed out,” he says, and Jesse can’t help a sigh of relief at those words. _Thank the Force for that._

He stretches one hand towards Kix’s face, tracing his cheek. If it had been something worse, he didn’t know what he would’ve done. _Nothing,_ his mind suggests, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything, but that’s not the point. “What should I do?” he asks Coric so that he can distract himself from those thoughts. All he knows is that he needs to do something for Kix.

“You can carry him to the barracks,” the medic tells him. “Make sure he gets some rest.”

Oh, that’s absolutely something he can do. He’d be happy to. As he gathers Kix in his arms and readies himself to get up, Coric speaks again.

“Let him know that I don’t want to see him here for a least a couple of days,” he says, then unfortunately he has to leave them to check on the other wounded. He can rest assured that Jesse will do everything in his power to make sure Kix rests, even if it’ll mean he’ll have to do it with force. 

Jesse takes Kix back to the Torrent company barracks and carries him all the way over to their bunk bed. He gently lowers his _cyare_ down onto the bottom bunk and sighs heavily, feeling tired after having carried him so far. Jesse sits on the edge of the bed and starts to take off Kix's armor the best he can. Five minutes later, all of Kix's armor has been taken off, leaving him in only his blacks. 

Jesse smiles sadly when Kix shivers so he puts him under the blankets. Once he's okay, Jesse stands up beside the bed and takes off his armor. Then he gets in the bed across from Kix and brings his knees up to his chest. Jesse closes his eyes and prays that Kix will wake up soon. 

Soon is right! Jesse hears a small groan come from his cyare just five minutes later. Jesse's eyes flash open and he shuffles on the bed, getting closer to Kix's body. "Kix? Kix? Are you okay?" he asks, placing a hand on Kix's shoulder when the medic opens his eyes. "How are you feeling, love?"

Kix groans, shutting his eyes closed as a sense of nausea overtakes him. Thankfully it lasts only for a moment, and soon he’s able to open his eyes again, staring at Jesse, who’s looking at him with a worried gaze. Oh, wait did he… _“Osik,”_ he mutters. “Did I pass out?”

“You sure did,” Jesse replies, which makes him sigh.

Damn it! This isn’t what was supposed to happen! They need him, he can’t stay here. Kix tries to get up, but Jesse stops him before he can, pushing him down on the bunk. “Jesse…”

“Kix, do you seriously think I’d let you go?” the other asks. “You collapsed!”

“And I’ve rested now!” Kix retorts immediately. “Jesse, I need to go.” At those words, Jesse can’t help but sigh. Kix always complains about them being too stubborn to follow his orders, but he is just like them. Besides…

“Coric will have my head if he sees you in the medbay.”

Kix rolls his eyes. “You’re so dramatic.”

“I’m serious!” Jesse exclaims. “Besides, you rested for what? Five minutes? That’s not enough and you know it.”

Kix groans in frustration and swings his legs over the side of the bed. "It is enough time! I am well-rested. I feel better! I am going to go back to the medbay to do my job, Jesse. That's what I was made to do. I can't sit idly while our brothers are dying!" Kix defends his actions and stands up. His vision swerves violently, causing him to tip to the side.

Jesse yelps and jerks forward, catching Kix before he falls to the floor again. "See? And this is why I said no. No means no, yeah? Yeah!" He sits Kix back down on the edge of the bed and frowns at him, stepping back, crossing his arms over his chest. Kix avoids eye contact, knowing he's wrong. 

Jesse looks away and sighs, shaking his head. "Kix, you gotta understand that sometimes you need rest. You've been working tirelessly for hours. Krell didn't let any of us rest, so why shouldn't you get any now? We are safe, yeah? And we have plenty of medics in the medbay that can do the job." Kix looks up at him. 

Jesse smiles sympathetically. “I understand why you need to do your job. But you need to rest, Kix. Please." Jesse sits down on the edge of the bed and clasps his hands over Kix's. “For me.”

“I…” Kix stops, for once undecided about what to do: on one hand, there’s his duty, but on the other…the thing is, Jesse is right, and Kix knows it. If he got up and got to work now, he’d do more damage than helping. What if someone dies for his mistakes? 

Still, the fact that he’s right doesn’t mean that Kix likes the situation, because he doesn’t, at all, though he had to concede victory to Jesse this time. “Ugh…fine, you win,” he mutters in fact. Despite the annoyed tone, deep down he’s glad that he’s been granted some rest. There’s just one thing though.

Kix draws Jesse’s hands close to his chest, happily sighing at the sensation. “But only if you stay with me,” he says then. “Please.” He can’t bear it to be alone. If Jesse leaves, he’ll begin having thoughts that he doesn’t want to make, and he will spiral down into depression and self-loathing. 

Jesse is his rock: when they’re together, Kix can focus on other things rather than on his worries. Besides, he needs to feel him close, he needs him here so that he can make sure that this isn’t some kind of hallucination, that he’s truly alive.

Jesse nods with a soft smile. Fondness shimmers in his handsome flaming eyes. "Of course. Scoot," he says with a wave of his hand. Kix smiles and scoots over to the other side of the small bed. Jesse gets under the blankets and brings Kix close to him, letting him rest his head against his chest. "Just listen to my heartbeat, my love. We don't have to talk if you don't want to. Whatever you want right now, we'll do," He whispers against his hair, kissing his crown gently.

Kix can’t help but smile at the contact, closing his eyes to better enjoy the sensation. “Well, if that’s how things are, I wouldn’t mind catching up on some sleep, if that’s fine for you of course…”

“Oh don’t worry, I’m not complaining,” Jesse replies immediately as he begins to caress Kix’s head with a calming motion. “It would make me so happy if you get some rest.” Kix’s smile grows larger and he snuggles closer to Jesse - he’ll never get enough of him. “I’ll watch over you,” Jesse whispers. It makes Kix feel safe to hear him say that; even though the campaign on Umbara is over, the sense of danger still looms over him. It’ll take him some time before feeling completely safe again.

Still…he opens his eyes again, moving his gaze to meet Jesse’s. He’s serious now. “You should get some rest too. These last few days haven’t been hard only on me.”

Jesse smiles in appreciation. "Heh. I'll go to sleep too. Don't worry. I just want you to go to sleep first."

Kix pouts. "Jesse."

"Shhh. Go to _sleeeep,"_ Jesse coos, placing his hand over Kix's eyes. 

Kix chuckles and opens his eyes again. Jesse closes them with his hand once more. Kix keeps his eyes closed this time, smiling to himself as he slowly drifts away. Jesse watches him fall asleep. It brings him a sense of calm and relief that his beloved is going to sleep. And soon after, he too gives up to the pressuring wave of exhaustion. He's never been so relieved to be able to fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! We hope you enjoyed this story!
> 
> This story was born as a roleplay!
> 
> Many thanks to Yall_its_me_nichole (Ao3) for beta reading this story for us!! She's amazing!


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